The best acting, however, belongs to William Hurt, whose brief, third-act appearance as a bitter mobster might be the best performance of the year. The scene between him and Tom, in which they finally confront one another in an attempt to clear up the truth, is an absolute revelation, mainly because of Hurt’s mesmerizing performance as a dark, twisted man who has passed the brink of madness years ago. There are few actors better than William Hurt working today, no small thanks to his uncanny ability to be in the constant state of reinventing himself with fresh, offbeat characters. He has never been as absolutely chilling as he is in A History of Violence; his crime boss is a man who cloaks his insanity as successfully as Tom suppresses his seeming natural tendency to extreme violence, and when the two men finally meet and expose each other’s greatest vulnerabilities, the result is one of the best acted scenes that I have seen in a long, long time. To say much more would force me to reveal plot twists that I refuse to give away, but if I had to put my money on a Best Supporting Actor nomination at the Oscars, Hurt would most certainly be at the top of the list.